• Vernissage

Philosopher and varmint

We introduce:

MyeongBeom Kim, an artist, sculpturer, South Korea, Seoul

It is impossible to say his name volubly on the first try. If you do this, you are, evidently, worth to be awarded for the best diction in the world. MyeongBeom Kim is an artist from South Korea, born in Seoul, a sculptor by profession, although he may be in the same way called a philosopher as well because the essence of all his works is exactly the philosophy of life.

Take this, for example: there are three regular matches on a white background — one is whole, another is slightly burnt while the third one has completely burnt away. Someone would look at it and say, ‘What a nonsense.’ While the other would think there is the meaning of life hidden in it, ‘The brighter you burn, the quicker you fade away’ or ‘Every single thing in this world sooner or later comes to its end.’ Or something else of this kind.

On the whole, the artist very frequently touches upon the topic of the moment and likes combining handicraft objects with the live matter of nature. Most times he does this with trees. He may either make a horns extension for a stuffed deer from them or integrate them in the centre of a small fisherman’s boat, or put them into a man’s urinal in a public toilet.

Air balloons are another fun of this artist. He puts various objects on them such as a burning candle or the very same tree, ties them to model girls’ hair and sometimes inserts human body parts such as a belly-button in them. Take, for instance, his allegoric picture: a heap of balloons together with tree roots. What he really did was that he returned balloons to their matter — the ancient rubber tree. Of course, while exploring this picture, one can come to many other conclusions: for instance, that we are all inclined to move upwards, try to get free of hold of black roots on the ground. But do we manage it? The most contradictory art on this topic is a bunch of multi-coloured balloons with strings which a halter is braided from. It is true, indeed – what is grief for someone is joy for the other. The artist generally enjoys kidding at death: simply take his work where he lit up a gravestone, having turned it into a contemporary art object. However, such cynicism not at least upsets or stresses out; on the contrary, it helps to put up with the fact that all in this world once comes to the end. And merry helium balloons will one day become a heap of colourful rubbish, for sure.

That is why, while observing these pictures, take a look at our to-date life from the point of MyeongBeom Kim. And you will see that the latest round of price rises on balloons is just balloons’ iteration towards elite art material which any designer and balloon shop owner secretly dreams of. Handing in compositions and small sculptures made of balloons, you can state that they are made of marble or, at least, latex covered with gold. Life is changing. Values are changing. And it is wonderful.